The association between work productivity and physical activity among Singapore full time employees

<p>Low work productivity has caused large indirect cost to many employers. Evidence shows that physical activity can improve health status, thus enhancing work productivity. In view of the benefits of physical activities, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a guideline on age-specific physical activity standards in 2010. According to the guideline, two weekly physical activity standards (the WHO standard and the WHO additional standard) have been introduced in order to prevent non- communicable disease and relieve mental pressure. </p><p>In this study, the association between work productivity and physical activity has been explored. The work productivity is measured by presenteeism and absenteeism together. Presenteeism implies a situation where a mentally or physically sick employee attend to work despite a medical illness that makes their job performance sub-optimal. It is recorded as a self-reported percentage of work efficiency loss in the study. Absenteeism implies having work absence because of medical condition. It is recorded as whether participants have medical absence in the past week. 928 valid responses from Singapore full-time employees have been analyzed using logistic models.</p><p>Results show that participants who had not met the WHO additional standard are less likely to have medical absence (OR=2.51, P<0.05). The longer time spent on physical activity is associated with lower work productivity (OR=1.001, P<0.05). I also found that the more frequent individual keeps healthy lifestyle, the lower presenteeism and absenteeism one will have. </p><p>The findings could be explained by several reasons. First, physically active participants have higher chance of physical injuries, leading to medical absence from work. Secondly, participants who had met the WHO additional standard are more likely to have lower income. Because of the labor leisure tradeoff theory, people who have lower income are less incentivized to trade leisure time for work. Therefore, the participants who had met the WHO additional standard have a lower medical absence rate. Thirdly, findings show that frequent healthy lifestyle is associated with higher work productivity. However, People who had met the WHO additional standard are less likely to have a frequent healthy lifestyle due to the lower social and economic status they have. Therefore, even though they have longer time spent on physical activity, the work productivity is still lower. Lastly, because of the work ethics in Singapore, employees ask for medical absence only due to urgent and serious medication conditions and such urgent and serious medical conditions cannot be prevented by physical activities.</p>Thesi

Sexual and reproductive health (SRH): a key issue in the emergency response to the coronavirus disease (COVID- 19) outbreak

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak was first declared in China in December 2019, and WHO declared the pandemic on 11 March 2020. A fast-rising number of confirmed cases has been observed in all continents, with Europe at the epicentre of the outbreak at this moment. Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and rights is a significant public health issue during the epidemics. The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is new to humans, and only limited scientific evidence is available to identify the impact of the disease COVID-19 on SRH, including clinical presentation and outcomes of the infection during pregnancy, or for persons with STI/HIV-related immunosuppression. Beyond the clinical scope of SRH, we should not neglect the impacts at the health system level and disruptions or interruptions in regular provision of SRH services, such as pre- and postnatal checks, safe abortion, contraception, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections. Furthermore, other aspects merit attention such as the potential increase of gender-based violence and domestic abuse, and effects of stigma and discrimination associated with COVID-19 and their effects on SRH clients and health care providers. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the scientific community to generate sound clinical, epidemiological, and psycho-social behavioral links between COVID-19 and SRH and rights outcomes

The relationships of school-based sexuality education, sexual knowledge and sexual behaviors—a study of 18,000 Chinese college students

Abstract Background A growing prevalence of unexpected pregnancies and younger age of sexual debut is observed among Chinese young people, while they lack formal sexuality education from schools and parents. It is necessary to measure their knowledge level of sexual and reproductive health, and how such knowledge associates with their sexual behaviors and reproductive health outcomes, which would shed light on the effectiveness of sexuality education in China. Methods An Internet-based questionnaire survey was conducted from January to August, 2015. 130 colleges were selected from eastern, central, and western parts China with a good balance of geographic distributions. The survey link was subsequently delivered to the focal points in each college for voluntary participation, targeting on undergraduates aged 18 ~ 25. Information on demographics, experience of school-based sexuality education (defined as any course introducing information on sexual and reproductive health) and SRH knowledge quiz was collected. Multivariate linear regression and logistic regression were applied to explore the relationship between students’ SRH knowledge, sexual behaviors and reproductive health outcomes, such as sexual intercourse (penetrative sex by vaginal or anal), unprotected sex, pregnancy and abortion, etc. Results A total sample of 17,966 Chinese college students (mean age = 20.2, 60.4% female) eventually entered the analysis. Only 55.6% of the respondents self-reported having received sexuality education before, and they scored significantly higher (2.33/4.00) in the SRH knowledge quiz than those who had not (1.75/4.00). Among the sexually experienced students (n = 3639, 20.2%), both males and females with higher SRH knowledge were less likely to report having experience of (partner’s) pregnancy or abortion (OR < 1, p < 0.05). In the group of sexually experienced males, those with higher SRH knowledge had a slightly later age of sexual debut (coefficient = 0.28, p < 0.001), and were less likely to have unprotected sex during the last or in most sexual intercourses (OR = 0.82, 95%C.I.: 0.69 ~ 0.96). Conclusion Students’ experience of school-based sexuality education may be positively associated with their SRH knowledge level as well as with their sexual behaviors and reproductive health outcomes, but such associations were stronger among males than females. A more effective implementation of school-based sexuality education needs to be scaled up, and a gender-sensitive education strategy to different needs is desirable for SRH promotion among Chinese young people

Early Sexual Initiation Is Associated with Suicide Attempts among Chinese Young People

This study aimed to investigate the association between early sexual initiation and suicide attempts (SAs) among Chinese young people. Our analysis included 9131 college students who had sexual experience from a national sample of 31 provincial administrative regions. Self-reported age at first intercourse was categorized as &le;15, 15&ndash;18, and &ge;18 years, and the experience of SAs was recorded and analyzed. Compared with females whose sexual debut age was &ge;18 years, those &le;15 years (defined as early sexual initiation) had higher odds of SAs in both the forced debut group (odds ratio (OR) 17.04, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.87&ndash;59.66) and the voluntary debut group (OR 37.63, 95% CI 14.96&ndash;94.66). Early sexual initiators who lived in rural areas were more inclined to have SAs (female: OR 65.76, 95% CI 19.80&ndash;218.42; male: OR 15.39, 95% CI 1.64&ndash;144.19). Early sexual initiators who never had parent&ndash;child communication about sex were more likely to report having SAs (female: OR 37.81, 95% CI 12.28&ndash;116.46). Sexual debut during adolescence, particularly early sexual initiation, was a crucial risk factor for SAs among both sexes. Comprehensive sexuality education and smooth parental communication about sex will provide a supportive environment for young people and hence reduce the potential risks of SAs